Seventeen people have been confirmed dead after a huge fire destroyed a tower block in west London - with the death toll expected to rise.

Grenfell Tower in north Kensington was wrecked by the blaze in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Some bodies have been recovered from the smouldering remains of the block, which contains 120 flats thought to be home to between 400 and 600 people.

Many people are still unaccounted for and firefighters are continuing to tackle "pockets of fire" in the block.

Fire crews descended on the tower block in London in the early hours of Wednesday - but false information is being shared on social media about the length of time firefighters took to respond, according to the Mirror.

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At 4.12am one person wrote on Twitter: "WHERE ARE THE FIREFIGHTERS? THAT THE F*** IS TAKING SO LONG!? Fire getting out of control, people still trapped in Grenfell Tower, Latimer Road."

She then added: "One woman said it took them two hours to arrive when their station is 2 block away."

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The woman who shared the false information on Twitter appears to be Palestinian and Canadian and might not even live in London.

Another wrote: "The firefighters were about one hour and 45 minutes too late."

It's not clear whether people have read information somewhere online and misunderstood it or they are sharing lies in order to discredit the emergency services.

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This is the truth

The first responders from London Fire Brigade arrived at Grenfell Tower within six minutes.

London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton held a press conference, broadcast this morning on BBC Breakfast, in which she confirmed there had been fatalities.

She said that the first 999 call was received at 12.54am and firefighters were on the scene within six minutes to begin extinguishing the blaze.

Two hundred firefighters have been battling the flames at the tower, taking it in turns to rest.

In an interview with CNN, a nurse who lives nearby - and who rushed towards the scene to save victims - told how firefighters were stumbling out of the building injured despite wearing protective gear.

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Theresa May has ordered a full public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire as emergency services raised the death toll to 17 - with further bodies expected to be found in the top-floor flats.

The Prime Minister's demand for the "terrible tragedy" to be "properly investigated" echoed calls from London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for answers after the blaze left residents in the 24-storey tower block fleeing for their lives.

Mr Corbyn, during a visit to the scene in west London, said the "truth has got to come out and it will".